China hails Singh's Beijing visit as great success

Praising Prime Minister Manmohan Singh as a renowned statesman, China on Thursday termed his three - day visit to Beijing a "great success" as it sent a "positive and powerful message" that the two countries were committed to working together.

"The two sides sent a positive and powerful message that the two countries are committed to working together," said foreign minister Wang Yi, who accompanied Singh to the ruling Communist Party's Central School.

Wang also termed Singh's visit as a "great success". "Once again congratulate him (Singh) on the high success of his visit," he said.

He hoped that India-China relationship would flourish further in the future and their friendship will last forever.

"The Prime Minister gave magnificent and substantive speech that fits his status as a world renowned statesman. It provides lot of inspiration for all of us," he said.

Singh was one of the rare foreign leaders invited to address the elite school which produced almost all top CPC leaders in the post-Mao era. President Xi Jinping headed the school until he took over the leadership of the country in 2013.

Singh was a accorded a rousing reception when arrived to address the middle-rung leaders of the Communist Party at the school in Beijing's outskirts.

The school's vice president He Yiting introduced Singh as a leading economist and the father of Indian economic reforms. "The success of India can be attributed to the hard work of Singh," he said.

The audience included several top provincial administrators who were attending the orientation courses periodically run by CPC to give them ideological direction.

One such official was the mayor of a city from China's Hainan province. He told PTI that he was deeply impressed by the sincerity and clarity of Singh who spoke on both problems and the friendship between the two countries.

Singh in his address outlined eight areas of cooperation and six principles of China engagement and interaction.

Meanwhile, Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying said the Border Defence Cooperation Agreement (BDCA), which was signed along with eight other deals on Wednesday, was the "highlight" of Singh's visit.

Replying to a host of questions on Singh's visit at a media briefing, she underlined the importance of the BDCA.

"China-India agreement on border defence cooperation is a highlight of the Prime Ministers' meeting," she said. It shows both sides have the capacity to solve the differences over the border areas and maintain the overall peace and stability of the border areas, Hua said.

The signing of this agreement was to codify the good practices and experiences in dealing with relevant issue. It will also regulate the handling of similar issues in the future, she said without directly referring to the diplomatic crisis over this year's "incursion" by Chinese troops in Ladakh region followed by several such incidents.

The BDCA will be of a great significance towards consolidating friendship between the two countries and maintaining peace and tranquility in border areas, she said.

She added that it showed that the two sides remained committed to strengthening friendly and cooperative relations. The signing of the agreement reflected the resolve of both sides for a friendly and cooperative relationship, Hua said.

Over the past few decades, India-China border negotiations have maintained sound momentum while the general situation on the border has remained peaceful and stable. The two sides have conducted effective control over border disputes and safeguarded the general situation of common development, the spokesperson said.

The deal reaffirms both sides will not use their own military capabilities against each other, defines the scope and mechanism of bilateral cooperation and regulates the ways in which border troops and the two militaries will step up links, she said

"This will help both sides deal better with border-related issues and safeguard border peace and tranquillity," said Hua.

On a new MoU on trans-border rivers, Hua said China's concerned departments will implement the agreement and step up communication and cooperation in this regard.

"China pays great attention to India's concerns in this regard," she said referring to the trans-border rivers agreement signed by the two countries on Wednesday.

"Therefore we signed MoU on cooperation on trans-boundary rivers. Two sides agreed to enhance cooperation in this regard and carry out cooperation in providing hydrological data and handling emergencies based on existing expert level mechanism and also agreed to exchange views on other issues of common interest," she said.

"The Indian side thanked the Chinese government for efforts in providing hydrological data and handling emergencies. I want to emphasise China and India enjoy sound cooperation in trans-border rivers," Hua said.

"We have been providing hydrological data to the Indian side and properly handled emergencies such as barrier lakes. We will further implement consensus reached between the two leaders and strengthen cooperation in the relevant field," she said.

About the lunch hosted by former Premier Wen Jiabao, another rare event as Chinese leaders once retire withdraw into obscurity, Hua said the two leaders met as they were friends for long. Singh had a lunch with Wen before leaving for India.

"The reason is very simple. It is because Wen is an old friend of Prime Minister Singh. This kind of arrangement reflects the importance the Chinese side attaches to the visit by Prime Minister Singh," she said.